


Oedipus

by Ohdotar



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Asgard, Avengers Tower, Awesome Frigga, BAMF Natasha, But also a punch in the face, Conversations, Gen, Insults, Loki Needs a Hug, Loki is Not Amused, NOT REALLY OEDIPAL, Natasha and Loki should just apologise to each other and hug, Not Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie) Compliant, Not gonna happen, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Post-Thor: The Dark World, Science Bros, Worldbuilding, but like... getting there, maybe not avengers family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-27
Updated: 2016-02-27
Packaged: 2018-05-19 09:24:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5962243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ohdotar/pseuds/Ohdotar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>'Oedipus was a mythical Greek king of Thebes. A tragic hero in Greek mythology, Oedipus accidentally fulfilled a prophesy that he would end up killing his father and marrying his mother, thereby bringing disaster to his city and family.<br/>The legend of Oedipus has been retold in many versions, and was used by Sigmund Freud to name and give mythic precedent to the Oedipus complex. The "Oedipal complex" refers to...'<br/>- JARVIS, probably, reading wikipedia out loud since someone happened to ask</p>
            </blockquote>





	Oedipus

No one knew how they had ended up in the current situation. It was already getting dark outside and the lights of New York dotted the view that opened from the big windows of one of the tower's common areas. They had been talking together for a while already - more than less arguing, really, but what did it matter - and everyone did their best to get along with each other. Sadly a magical almost-an-ally was a lot better thing to have than a magical enemy, and even Clint had to admit that. Loki was, besides, acting in a more tolerable and sane way than on his last visit to the Avengers' new headquarters. This time he had even thanked them for their hospitality and tolerance.

It wasn't bad, no, mostly just a little tense and awkward. Luckily Tony was there to fill the silence whenever he felt like it was starting to stretch too long. Steve and Thor leaned on Tony's bar counter while Loki sat on a stool next to it with an untouched drink in his hand. There was constantly a subtle threat of a bigger argument around the corner but luckily no one was forced to sit down and stay if the conversation grew too heated. Clint had hogged most of the couch and kept fiddling with his phone, but had at least agreed to stay for the evening and promised to _try_ to behave if Loki didn't give a reason for him to hit the Asgardian. He didn't like Loki at all, but he also didn't want to be stubborn just for the sake of being stubborn and miss out on all the conversation. Loki was not feeling very talkative and had a haughty air about him, but was no worse than Thor on his grumpy days - and in addition to that, occasionally Loki even lifted the corners of his thin lips in something that was almost a smile, or at least a smirk, and not even the creepy kind. With a little bit of goading from Thor and Steve he might've even said a few words and offered mocking correction to Thor's tall tales. It was refreshing to hear a new perspective on the life and people of Asgard from someone who had lived there for a thousand years but was not Thor.  
A great deal of Loki's reserved attitude could be blamed on the fact that he actually knew none of the people present, well, except his brother. Then again, his last visit hadn't been very warm either, when he had been beat into the floor and acted as the leader of the tower's destruction. Bruce was somewhat withdrawn too, probably because he didn't want to think about beating people into the floor, and opted to play chess with Tony at the dining table next to the couch and by the large windows. Tony was not necessarily bothered by the fact that, instead of one okay Asgardian, he now had one okay and one _totally not okay_ Asgardian in his building. He was a little uncertain, but it was also interesting to observe Loki while the man didn't try to make a complete attention whore out of himself. And judging by his little snorts Loki might've even had some sense of humour. Natasha was not particularly excited to have Loki in the building even if he was an impressive opponent in the right circumstances. Thor tried to act as a peacemaker and was doing surprisingly well without crowding the space with his presence.

"Okay, I've heard the whole great adventure ay least twice from Thor and a billion times on the news. What I really can't understand, though, is why the heck would _you_ jerk help _him_ to save the world?" Clint asked and pointed his phone at Loki and Thor from across the room. There was a short moment of silence and staring at each other before Loki rolled his eyes slightly.  
"Apart from me being someone who lives on the branches of this universe, Thor actually asked me to accompany him," he said slowly, turning to look at Thor. For a moment the brothers seemed to engage in an unspoken conversation, during which even Thor's bright expression fell slightly. Natasha frowned when she stood up to check the fridge, but Tony and Clint sat up straighter when they sensed family drama ahead.  
"For Mother," Thor said after a while. Loki gave a small nod and dropped his eyes to the liquid in his glass. "I made my decisions before she made her own... mine were wrong. I wanted to try and decide again," he said with a deceivingly flat and cool tone, "even if I was not, strictly speaking, doing the right thing, then at least I took a step closer to her again."

It did not take a long time for Thor to give a warm, soft laugh and pat Loki gently on the shoulder. With his caredul steering the whole subject of the conversation slowly turned out towards the gracious and fierce queen of another world, the actual mother-goddess of a whole kingdom, killed in battle, and the late mother of Thor and Loki themselves. Thinking about her seemed to make Thor carry himself in a prouder and more welcoming manner, and even Loki's smile was suddenly completely different from the previous sharp thinning of his lips. It was warmer as Thor went on to laugh about all the time she had spent with her sons when they were young.  
"She used to read us poems of famous heroes and great beasts every night she had time for us, and we were so little then that she could fit us both on her lap. She even sang the shorter ballads, sometimes. I remember her voice and the crackling from the fireplace when she told us the tales of foreign lands and great adventures of times gone long ago," Thor told while reaching for the beer Natasha offered him in passing. His deep voice was lowered in a rather tender way, which was unusual for him. Loki let out a soft chuckle before letting his smile drop.  
"I can remember her long hair, as soft as wool and as golden as apples. She always let it down on those nights," he said, so silently that Tony and Bruce missed it completely, more to Thor than anyone else. Steve smiled slightly, watching the two Asgardians but deciding to give them some space by saying nothing. Despite her queenly duties Frigga had apparently always done her best in raising her sons. Thor told how she always took them to read and play with her, or scolded them herself for their childish pranks and fooling around, rather than letting a servant-maid or a teacher raise her sons. The clicking of pieces against the chessboard stopped and Clint put his phone away for the moment. Even if he didn't look very amused, he didn't object to stories when he wasn't the one having to tell them. The memories of golden orchads and silent courtyards must have really been good and precious and beautiful, or maybe Loki hadn't yet had the chance to sort out his thoughts on the matter and needed the chance to open up, because he was surprisingly easy to coax into speaking.

"She was good," Loki said, "and she was kind, and wise. But she was a queen and not a fool, nor was she too blue-eyed to blindly trust in the goodness of others. As a political figure she might not have had all the same freedom of choice a peasant mother has over her farmstead and family, but I think that it only shows how much more of a woman she was. She was magnificent, a good queen."  
"And a good mother," Thor smiled.  
Despite his opening up, Loki tried to distance himself from the subject as subtly as possible, that much was clear to everyone listening. It almost seemed like he was telling a story of someone else's parent or a character in an old legend rather than his own memories. Thor helped and added his opinions here and there, clearly the one with more emotional skills of the two.  
"She taught Loki most of his magic!" he laughed. Loki let out a sigh.  
"She taught me most of _her_ magic, and the rest I have I learned by myself."  
"Yeah? Like brainwashing people", Clint grunted from the sofa. Loki closed his eyes, perhaps in an attempt to stop himself from rolling them again, before staring at him for a while.  
"Like brainwashing people," he bit out with a stiff nod and a falsely polite smile. With such expression it was very easy to see him as an influental member of a royal court. "I learned it from someone else," he admitted, but didn't elaborate.  
"Okay, enough about brainwashing. What did you guys actually do in the 'great olden days', when you were still just two little snobby kids running around in her skirts?" Tony asked. "I mean, everyone can see that your upbringing was probably _a little_ different from what were used to. What do kids do in Asgard?" 

Thor and Loki exchanged looks again and neither seemed completely sure about their answer.  
"Well... frankly we didn't spend that much time with other youths", Thor said with a shrug. "At least not when we were still under the age of battle training, but even then we did not socialise with people outside of the inner court -"  
"Except that you did, constantly, and were told off every single time you gathered your friends and ran away from the palace and out of the gates. Mother never did appreciate you storming off like that," Loki cut in like any younger sibling would, with the exception that such siblings rarely sounded so dignified and haughty while doing so. Thor let out an annoyed huff but Loki seemed to be too interested in the material of the bar counter to notice.  
"As I was saying", Thor continued, "We were brought up in the palace, as princes, and it must have made our childhood somewhat different from that of other children. Our upbringing was rather strict and traditional, perhaps, and we had to study a lot -"  
"Not that you ever did. You just ran along the halls, screaming how you were going to be a war general..."  
"- and know our duties to the kingdom. There would've been many potential brides to discuss at a later time, many rules and important parts of etiquette to be learnt -"  
"Which you still haven't. You hardly know how to have a civilised conversation, let alone dance," and by now Loki just seemed to be interrupting him purely out of spite and for sport.  
"You guys dance?" Bruce chuckled and found it very hard to imagine, but the question was rethorical. After all, it was probably to be expected that Asgard would have some sort of dance culture at balls or other formal events.  
"- _and,_ even in Asgard, times do change," Thor tried to continue, "The games we played as children are already getting too old for the new generation. And Loki's favourite game was, and has been to this day, 'How can I test the patience of others, thus reaching nearly _foolhardy measures in my provocative behaviour_ ', and afterwards denying he had ever even played it," he finished, while aiming a very pointed but still somewhat amused look at Loki, who was still swirling his drink in his glass. Thor's expression softened slightly before adding: "Though mother often forgave you that."  
"Well, I _did_ have to make up some amusement for myself while you were away, beating trolls every other week and whatnot," Loki replied, and almost sounded like he might've even been sorry. Or not - with him it was always hard to say if things were as they seemed.  
"Yes. Getting spoilt from head to toe is always a good cure for boredom," Thor snorted and downed his beer.  
"You're the one to say, Prince of the Universe" Tony pointed out, and Loki actually laughed at that for a while, before seemingly coming back to his senses and letting the surprised chuckling die out. He didn't even need any more baiting to start talking.

Clint didn't really like sweet and cheesy childhood stories, and he really didn't like Loki, but he had to admit that the exchange between two brothers was more or less amusing. And luckily, for the time being, no one seemed to be keen on trashing places or hitting people with a warhammer. Mostly though, he was curious about Natasha. She seemed almost as unhappy as he did on a normal Monday morning. He tried to raise his eyebrows at her in a way that would have said 'What are you thinking about? Is it about Loki? Is the talk bothering you? Do you wanna strangle him? 'Cause I probably wouldn't object,' but apparently even Natasha couldn't read it all from his eyebrows alone. She just shook her head and Clint let his expression relax back to a less suspicious one.  
"Well, a mother's love is a blessing," Steve said with a small smile when Loki paused for a moment. Lifting his eyes, and one corner of his lips too, Loki nodded. He was silent for a while and clearly avoided looking at everyone else. Tapping his fingers together, he nodded again.  
"If there ever was a woman who truly deserved to be called 'All-Mother', it was her," he said with a sigh. "...I did love her. I still do, even though all has recently gone upside down." Thor patted him gently on the shoulder and Loki glared at him, but didn't shrug it off. Steve had already got some of the information a few weeks ago, so he didn't press Loki - or Thor, for the record - about the matter anymore.  
"I thought you were the one to put everything upside down," Natasha said, but when Loki looked at her, confused, she only shrugged.  
"Before Bruce starts crying," Tony interrupted loudly, despite Bruce's confused muttering of _"what"_ in the middle, "can we talk about something that's not so depressing? Okay? I get that people love their moms, but I'm sorry. Bruce can't handle the tension anymore." _("What...?")_

"Of course", Thor nodded in a very serious way, but he looked at Tony with a smile like someone might give to an obviously child. "I can tell you about our great adventure to Alfheim many, many years ago," he said. Loki elbowed him lightly and lowered his voice to a very theatrical, loud whisper.  
"Thor, your definition of many, many years may just differ from their's a little bit. Just a little. It would be better to just say 'a few centuries ago', to give them a proper time frame," he hissed as if he was telling a big secret to the older Asgardian. Steve tried to hide a smile and Clint rolled his eyes, because the secret was surely told loud enough for them all to hear. Possibly Loki was more pleasant company this time, but he was certainly no less full of himself. Neither was Thor, because his following laugh was very loud.  
"Do you mind?" Tony sighed and crossed his arms.  
"I'm sorry, I truly am," Thor laughed, while Loki nodded his apologies beside him with a wide grin, "Yes, Loki is right. It was a few centuries ago, when we first ventured to Elf-home. The elves, they're an interesting people. Many peoples and cultures, in fact, much like you have here in Midgard. Different languages and customs, you see."  
"Of which you knew nothing. Especially about their women," Loki pointed out, resuming his earlier habit of interrupting Thor as much as possible.  
"Oh, because you did, didn't you? You read it all from your books and discussed it at length with Mother?" Thor countered the jab. Loki feigned a hurt look at the way Thor said 'books' like the word itself was full of worms and dust.  
"And what if I did?" he asked. Before Thor had a chance to answer another dramatic whisper rang in the room for everyone to hear, as Natasha leaned backwards against the back of the couch.

"Tony, you should've called him Oedipus instead of Rudolph."

Tony nearly choked, despite having nothing in his throat. It was silent for a long while, during which Bruce cleared his throat rather loudly, Clint looked very disgusted and bordering on green, while Steve gaped at Natasha in pure shock that drew all the colour from his face.  
Loki and Thor both looked around with similar confused frowns. Insults were not a strange concept to either brother, and Loki certainly recognised one aimed at himself because he often threw them around rather carelessly. The varying shocked reactions of others, and not knowing why they looked like they did, were what actually unsettled him more than being called by a name.  
"Why the hell would you even say something like that?" Tony almost whined when he recovered from coughing his lungs out. Clint looked at Natasha with a glare that seemed to ask exactly the same question.  
"What happened...?" Thor asked and looked at the Avengers and Steve, then back at Loki. Steve just shook his head firmly, starting to get colour back to his cheeks - more so than there was before. Loki turned to stare at him too, because he assumed that Steve would surely tell the hidden meaning soon. But there was nothing. He didn't like not knowing.  
"Steve. What is... Oedipus?" Loki demanded out loud, with a calm and cool voice, but Steve shook his head again. Natasha got up from her chair and rounded the bar to check the fridge again. She almost looked like she was going to start laughing soon.  
"I want to know. I'm asking you to tell me," Loki said, but still got no answer. He grit his teeth, before standing up and turning to glare at Natasha from under his brows. "Romanoff. It is incredibly unprofessional, and unsatisfying, to insult someone with a name they have no hope of understanding."  
"I could give you the same advice," she said after shutting the fridge without actually taking anything out on the table. She crossed her arms and lifted her chin a bit, but smiled. "I had to google it, you know."  
And she left. The men left present were suddenly very interested in their previous doings. Chess pieces clicked against the board again and Clint quickly fished out his phone, despite not actually doing anything with it but staring at the dark screen.

~ ~ ~

Loki had been very silent for a few days and kept to himself, so when Tony ran into him while taking a trip to his lab, he was surprised. He seemed to be slowly recovering from the extremely distasteful insult because he actually looked at Tony when he nodded his greetings.  
"Hi, how are you. Sorry, I didn't see you from around the corner."  
"No need to apologise," Loki said, "Have a good day," and Tony still couldn't quite decide whether to believe that the guy was actually serious, or just accept that he probably thought all of them as a big joke. Tony couldn't help himself when he saw Loki turning around the corner.  
"Hey, wait," he called. Loki stopped and looked at him with a raised eyebrow and palms opened expectingly upwards.  
"I tried to forget about this whole thing, I really did, but I just had to make sure," Tony assured. He took a deep breath, "Please _please_ tell me that when you spoke about your mother you didn't really mean it that way."  
And then he fled. 

**Author's Note:**

> (haha please don't get me wrong i love natasha)
> 
> This is a oneshot, but most likely also a part of a bigger plot I have been developing. Maybe I'll publish the whole thing some day.  
> I'm always trying to improve my English, so please if you spot bad grammar or misspelling or some other crap in there, point it out so I can fix it (the spelling I use is mostly British). I'd also be super happy to hear your opinions on this, so feel free to leave comments down below!


End file.
